Leaves from the Vine
by GarrettHawke
Summary: Levi goes into a deep depression after losing Petra and the rest of his squad, Mikasa however, will not stand for it. First fanfic in about 3 years, constructive criticism is very appreciated


**Author's Note: **This is my first post in about three years so please leave a review and let me know how it turned out!

Her caramel-color hair was spattered with her own blood, and her head stuck awkwardly, vertical up the tree that she was stomped into. The blood from her nose had streaked up her cheek into her soft, thick dirty blonde hair, the very same hair that Levi had found himself caressing a week ago. Within three minutes, he had lost the one thing tethering him to some semblance of emotion.

The only emotion he found himself with now was rage, and he knew how to sate that feeling. Levi averted his gaze from Petra, as he could look no longer upon her defiled beauty.

He heard the Female Titan stomping through the woods, shot a hook to the nearest tree in range and was pulled with the momentum in the direction of the tree.

As she soared through the forest, Mikasa attempted to catch up to him, and she saw the bodies of his squad: Gunther, Erd, Auruo, and Petra. She felt a moment of sorrow until the rage of watching the Female Titan swallowing Eren consumed that thought.

Levi noticed Mikasa beside him speeding through the air, her raven hair plastered to her face from the physical strain the expedition had taken on her so far. "Maintain this distance" Levi said in as authoritative of a voice as he could choke out through the lump in his throat. With the female Titan in sight, he did not want to alert her to their presence yet. As they gained ground on the Titan, Levi noticed Mikasa had an intense gaze upon the Titan's nape.

"Don't even think about it, we couldn't kill that titan without one of us dying." Mikasa whipped her head to the side staring at Levi, "But she killed our Comrades!" she blurted. "Don't let your emotions get in the way of getting your precious Eren back, you stupid brat. You will distract her, I will carve her to pieces," Levi ordered lazily. Mikasa used her gas boost and sped off in front of the sprinting female Titan.

Mikasa snaked back and forth in front of the Female titan, drawing it's attention. Levi's mind conjured images of his dead squadmates, Petra... her perfect features made haunting and pale, Levi shook the thoughts from his head and grappled onto the Female Titan, speeding towards it at high velocity.

The Titan felt Levi's hooks on it's shoulder, and it spun around as quickly as possible and tried to pulverize him with a massive fist. Levi expected it to react violently and began to spin, his arms extended fully, blades reaching for the rough flesh of the female titan. He connected with it's arm, his forward momentum wheeling him up it's forearm to it's bicep. After spinning out of the move he sprinted up it's shoulder and plunged his swords into the Titan's eyes.

The Titan attempted to go into a storm of rage, but this was cut short by Captain Levi's inhuman movements, like a demon he sped around the Titan cutting and slashing every muscle that was required to stand up.

The Titan staggered and then crashed to the ground, it's back resting against a tree. Mikasa was astonished by the intensity and speed of Levi's movements as any human always was, but there was something else this time, a deep, brightly burning fire in his eyes, a thirst for Titan blood that was unmatched.

She set her eyes upon the Female Titan's neck, Levi is is fast that she cannot harden her skin, and her arm is down, I can kill her! The captain saw Mikasa leave the branch she was standing on, she was heading straight for the Female Titan's nape, Damned brat, Levi knew that the female titan would sense the attack.

He left the tree he hung to as quickly as he could, trying to intercept Mikasa, he came in at full speed, shoving Mikasa out of the way of the Titan's backhanded swat, instead Levi landed on the Titan's hand, his ankle slipped, breaking on the concrete bone of the Titan, he cringed, and hooked onto the Titan's mouth, cutting it open on his flight past it, Eren slid onto the Titan's tongue.

"Eren!" exclaimed Mikasa, Levi whipped back around and grabbed Eren before speeding off into another tree, he cringed again, the added weight on his already broken ankle was excruciating, but he could not show any sign of weakness, or pain. "He is fine, if a little filthy, keep focus on the core objective". Once out of the forest and regrouped, Levi sat on his horse, watching the remaining members of the fifty-seventh expedition trying to recover from the staggering losses they had suffered, some were piling dead bodies onto the wagons, others were shellshocked, unable to comprehend their friends who had just graduated cadet service, being torn apart and eaten.

His eyes eventually found their way to Mikasa, who was sitting next to one of the body caravans, she was crying, not unusual for a new scout seeing her friends devoured, but Levi was even still surprised, she was the only person he thought capable of handling that sort of trauma so soon after graduation, he left his horse and walked over, kneeling by her, "why are you crying Mikasa?" he said in his usual airy, lazy voice, "your squad, they were devoured and they were the best!" she sobbed "and yet YOU feel nothing!"

"Mikasa, you are making a scene" her screaming began to draw unneeded eyes. She lowered her voice "are you that heartless?" He knelt to her level as if speaking with a fussy child, "I try my best to feel nothing because if I did, I would have killed myself long ago, now please clean yourself up, after all this, I will need a new squad."

Mikasa rubbed her eyes with her sleeves and tried to stop crying, the lump in her throat almost unbearable, she walked after Levi, wanting to speak with him about his implied recruitment. Levi did his best not to notice his comrades bodies as he walked past them. Reiner was screaming at Commander Erwin about a dead friend's body, "We must reclaim his body, if not for his honor, then his family's!", Erwin was less than impressed by this unprofessional show of emotion.

Levi saw an opportunity to get away from the bodies, "Commander Erwin, if I may?" Erwin nodded prodding him along, "I could help this fool retrieve his friends body, even though dead is dead, a show of honor for his family is the most respect we can give him" the Commander stood, staring Levi in his grey orbs.

"Alright, Levi you may help the boy find his friend, however if you are not back within an hour, we will have to abandon you, is that clear" Erwin stared Levi down, waiting for an answer. Levi simply nodded and turned to Reiner, "Where did you la-" Levi turned to the sound of Mikasa's voice interrupting him, "Commander Erwin, I request to accompany captain Levi on this mission" Erwin turned to Levi as it was his choice, Levi pondered the request, why would she want to follow me?, he mouthed the word "no" to Erwin. Mikasa had been watching Levi the entire time, "Captain I must request tha-" this Mikasa was being interrupted, "You will respect my decision, now leave" Mikasa looked wounded for a moment, she walked away muttering all kinds of obscenities about the 5'11 Captain.

Levi turned to Reiner,"take me to where you believe the body is" Reiner nodded quickly and shot a grapple into the nearby tree line where Levi was manuevering to follow. After fifteen minutes of high speed traveling with ODM gear, they found Ivan's body, it was surrounded by titans. "What are we going to do!" Levi responded calmly "I will take those three on the right, you take that one on the left, work your way over to me, killing any that get in your way" Reiner hesitated before nodding and zooming off the branch they were on towards his target.

Levi sighed to himself, I am sorry, Petra, he shot a grapple into a tree nearby his titans, once in the air above them, he grappled straight down onto one of their napes, spinning on the way down, arms outstretched, swords hungry for blood. One Titan dead, it's steaming carcass's blood dripped from Levi's blades, he performed the same maneuver on the next Titan, more blood covered his uniform and his weapons, he went low this time, slicing the legs off the eight meter Titan. He shot a grapple in the nearest tree, he felt a tug at the ground, his grapple had malfunctioned, not now, of all the times not damned now! Levi was f$ &ed and he knew it. He began to run, sprinting as fast as he could, looking over his shoulder just long enough to see Reiner get eaten by the same Titan Levi had failed to kill.

Once again, my failures cause the deaths of others, Levi saw the crawling Titan coming after him, moving at ridiculous speed, not heeding the tree that the human lead it into, cracking it's skull and knocking it out cold. Levi took a breath of relief,however he did not expect to be swatted by the Titan behind him. As the lumbering giant approached, Levi saw red, it covered his eyes and stung, and then he saw a red of a different shade, a scarf.


End file.
